Multi-layered speech recognition apparatus and method

ABSTRACT

A multi-layered speech recognition apparatus and method, the apparatus includes a client checking whether the client recognizes the speech using a characteristic of speech to be recognized and recognizing the speech or transmitting the characteristic of the speech according to a checked result; and first through N-th servers, wherein the first server checks whether the first server recognizes the speech using the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result, and wherein an n-th (2≦n≦N) server checks whether the n-th server recognizes the speech using the characteristic of the speech transmitted from an (n−1)-th server, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2004-80352, filed on Oct. 8, 2004 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to speech recognition, and more particularly, to a speech recognition apparatus and method using a terminal and at least one server.

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional speech recognition method by which speech recognition is performed only at a terminal is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,630. In the disclosed conventional method, all procedures of speech recognition are performed only at a terminal. Thus, in the conventional method, due to limitation of resources of the terminal, speech cannot be recognized with high quality.

A conventional speech recognition method by which speech is recognized using only a server when a terminal and the server are connected to each other, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,220. In the disclosed conventional method, the terminal simply receives the speech and transmits the received speech to the server, and the server recognizes the speech transmitted from the terminal. In the conventional method, since all speech input is directed to the server, the load on the server gets very high, and since the speech should be transmitted to the server so that the server can recognize the speech, the speed of speech recognition is reduced.

A conventional speech recognition method, by which speech recognition is performed by both a terminal and a server, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,534. In the disclosed conventional method, since an Internet search domain is targeted, an applied range thereof is narrow, and the speech recognition method cannot be embodied.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multi-layered speech recognition apparatus to recognize speech in a multi-layered manner using a client and at least one server, which are connected to each other in a multi-layered manner via a network.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a multi-layered speech recognition method by which speech is recognized in a multi-layered manner using a client and at least one server, which are connected to each other in a multi-layered manner via a network.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multi-layered speech recognition apparatus, the apparatus including a client extracting a characteristic of speech to be recognized, checking whether the client recognizes the speech using the extracted characteristic of the speech and recognizing the speech or transmitting the characteristic of the speech, according to a checked result; and first through N-th (where N is a positive integer equal to or greater than 1) servers, wherein the first server receives the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client, checks whether the first server recognizes the speech, using the received characteristic of the speech, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result, and wherein the n-th (2≦n≦N) server receives the characteristic of the speech transmitted from an (n−1)-th server, checks whether the n-th server recognizes the speech, using the received characteristic of the speech, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multi-layered speech recognition method performed in a multi-layered speech recognition apparatus having a client and first through N-th (where N is a positive integer equal to or greater than 1) servers, the method including extracting a characteristic of speech to be recognized, checking whether the client recognizes the speech using the extracted characteristic of the speech, and recognizing the speech or transmitting the characteristic of the speech according to a checked result; and receiving the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client, checking whether the first server recognizes the speech, using the received characteristic of the speech, and recognizing the speech or transmitting the characteristic according to a checked result, and receiving the characteristic of the speech transmitted from a (n−1)-th (2≦n≦N) server, checking whether the n-th server recognizes the speech, using the received characteristic of the speech, and recognizing the speech or transmitting the characteristic according to a checked result, wherein the extracting of the characteristic of the speech to be recognized is performed by the client, the receiving of the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client is performed by the first server, and the receiving of the characteristic of the speech transmitted from a (n−1)-th server is performed by the n-th server.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a multi-layered speech recognition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a multi-layered speech recognition method performed in the multi-layered speech recognition apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the client shown in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 a flowchart illustrating operation 40 shown in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the client adjustment unit shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operation 84 shown in FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the client speech recognition unit shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a q-th server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating operation 42 shown in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating operation 88 shown in FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the server adjustment unit shown in FIG. 8 according to an embodiment of the present invention

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating operation 200 shown in FIG. 9 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the server speech recognition unit shown in FIG. 8 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the client topic-checking portion shown in FIG. 5 or the server topic-checking portion shown in FIG. 11 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating operation 120 shown in FIG. 6 or operation 240 shown in FIG. 12 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an n-th server according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating operation 204 according to an embodiment of the present invention when the flowchart shown in FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of operation 44 shown in FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a multi-layered speech recognition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The multi-layered speech recognition apparatus of FIG. 1 includes a client 10 and N servers 20, 22, . . . , and 24 (where N is a positive integer equal to or greater than 1).

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a multi-layered speech recognition method performed in the multi-layered speech recognition apparatus shown in FIG. 1. The multi-layered speech recognition method of FIG. 2 includes the client 10 recognizing speech or transmitting a characteristic of the speech (operation 40) and at least one server recognizing the speech that is not recognized by the client 10 itself (operations 42 and 44).

In operation 40, the client 10 shown in FIG. 1 inputs the speech to be recognized through an input terminal IN1, extracts a characteristic of the input speech, checks whether the client 10 itself can recognize the speech using the extracted characteristic of the speech, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic of the speech to one of the servers 20, 22, . . . , and 24 according to a checked result. Here, the client 10 has a small capacity of resources, like in a mobile phone, a remote controller, or a robot, and can perform word speech recognition and/or connected word speech recognition. The resources may be a processing speed of a central processing unit (CPU) and the size of a memory that stores data for speech recognition. The word speech recognition is to recognize one word, for example, command such as ‘cleaning,’ etc. which are sent to a robot, etc., and the connected word speech recognition is to recognize two or more simply-connected words required for a mobile phone etc., such as ‘send message,’ etc.

Hereinafter, a server of the servers 20, 22, . . . , and 24 which directly receives a characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client 10, is referred to as a first server, a server which directly receives a characteristic of the speech transmitted from the first server or from a certain server is referred to a different server, and the different server is also referred to as an n-th server (2≦n≦N).

After operation 40, in operation 42, the first server 20, 22, . . . , or 24 receives a characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client 10, checks whether the first server 20, 22, . . . , and 24 itself can recognize the speech using the characteristic of the received speech, and recognizes speech or transmits the characteristic of the speech to the n-th server according to a checked result.

After operation 42, in operation 44, the n-th server receives a characteristic of the speech transmitted from a (n−1)-th server, checks whether the n-th server itself can recognize the speech using the received characteristic of the speech, and recognizes speech or transmits the characteristic of the speech to a (n+1)-th server according to a checked result. For example, when the n-th server itself cannot recognize the speech, the (n+1)-th server performs operation 44, and when the (n+1)-th server itself cannot recognize the speech, a (n+2)-th server performs operation 44. In this way, several servers try to perform speech recognition until the speech is recognized by one of the servers.

In this case, when one of first through N-th servers recognizes the speech, a recognized result may be outputted via an output terminal (OUT₁, OUT₂, . . . , or OUT_(N)) but may also be outputted to the client 10. This is because the client 10 can also use the result of speech recognition even though the client 10 has not recognized the speech.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the result of speech recognized by one of the first through N-th servers is outputted to the client 10, the client 10 may also inform a user of the client 10 via an output terminal OUT_(N+1) whether the speech is recognized by the server.

Each of the servers 20, 22, . . . , and 24 of FIG. 1 does not extract the characteristic of the speech but receives the characteristic of the speech extracted from the client 10 and can perform speech recognition immediately. Each of the servers 20, 22, . . . , and 24 can retain more resources than the client 10, and the servers 20, 22, . . . , and 24 retain different capacities of resources. In this case, the servers are connected to one another via networks 13, 15, . . . , and 17 as shown in FIG. 1, regardless of having small or large resource capacity. Likewise, the servers 20, 22, . . . , and 24 and the client 10 may be connected to one another via networks 12, 14, . . . , and 16. For example, a home server having a small capacity of resources exists. The home server can recognize household appliances-controlling speech conversation composed of a comparatively simple natural language, such as ‘please turn on a golf channel’. Another example, a service server such as ubiquitous robot companion (URC), having a large capacity of resource exists. The service server can recognize a composite command composed of a natural language in a comparatively long sentence, such as ‘please let me know what movie is now showing’.

In the multi-layered speech recognition apparatus and method shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the client 10 tries to perform speech recognition (operation 40). When the client 10 does not recognize the speech, the first server having a larger capacity of resource than the client 10 tries to perform speech recognition (operation 42). When the first server does not recognize the speech, servers having larger capacities of resources than the first server try to perform speech recognition, one after another (operation 44).

When the speech is a comparatively simple natural language, the speech can be recognized by the first server having a small resource capacity. In this case, the multi-layered speech recognition method shown in FIG. 2 may include operations 40 and 42 and may not include operation 44. However, when the speech is a natural language in a comparatively long sentence, the speech can be recognized by a different server having a large capacity of resource. In this case, the multi-layered speech recognition method shown in FIG. 2 includes operations 40, 42, and 44.

Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the multi-layered speech recognition apparatus according to embodiments of the present invention and the multi-layered speech recognition method performed in the multi-layered speech recognition apparatus will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the client 10 shown in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment 10A of the present invention. The client 10A of FIG. 3 includes a speech input unit 60, a speech characteristic extraction unit 62, a client adjustment unit 64, a client speech recognition unit 66, a client application unit 68, and a client compression transmission unit 70.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating operation 40 shown in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment 40A of the present invention. Operation 40A of FIG. 4 includes extracting a characteristic of speech using a detected valid speech section (operations 80 and 82) and recognizing the speech or transmitting the extracted characteristic of the speech depending on whether the speech can be recognized by a client itself (operations 84 through 88).

In operation 80, the speech input unit 60 shown in FIG. 3 inputs speech through, for example, a microphone, through an input terminal IN2 from the outside, detects a valid speech section from the input speech, and outputs the detected valid speech section to the speech characteristic extraction unit 62.

After operation 80, in operation 82, the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 extracts a characteristic of the speech to be recognized from the valid speech section and outputs the extracted characteristic of the speech to the client adjustment unit 64. Here, the speech characteristic extraction unit 60 can also extract the characteristic of the speech in a vector format from the valid speech section.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the client 10A shown in FIG. 3 may not include the speech input unit 60, and operation 40A shown in FIG. 4 may also not include operation 80. In this case, in operation 82, the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 directly inputs the speech to be recognized through the input terminal IN2, extracts the characteristic of the input speech, and outputs the extracted characteristic to the client adjustment unit 64.

After operation 82, in operations 84 and 88, the client adjustment unit 64 checks whether the client 10 itself can recognize speech using the characteristic extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 and transmits the characteristic of the speech to a first server through an output terminal OUT_(N+3) or outputs the characteristic of the speech to the client speech recognition unit 66, according to a checked result.

For example, in operation 84, the client adjustment unit 64 determines whether the client 10 itself can recognize the speech, using the characteristic of the speech extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit 62. If it is determined that the client 10 itself cannot recognize the speech, in operation 88, the client adjustment unit 64 transmits the extracted characteristic of the speech to the first server through the output terminal OUT_(N+3). However, if it is determined that the client 10 itself can recognize the speech, the client adjustment unit 64 outputs the characteristic of the speech extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 to the client speech recognition unit 66.

Thus, in operation 86, the client speech recognition unit 66 recognizes the speech from the characteristic input from the client adjustment unit 64. In this case, the client speech recognition unit 66 can output a recognized result in a text format to the client application unit 68.

The client application unit 68 shown in FIG. 3 performs the same function as the client 10 using a result recognized by the client speech recognition unit 66 and outputs a result through an output terminal OUT_(N+2). For example, when the client 10 is a robot, the function performed by the client application unit 68 may be a function of controlling the operation of the robot.

The client 10 shown in FIG. 3 may not include the client application unit 68. In this case, the client speech recognition unit 66 directly outputs a recognized result to the outside.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the client adjustment unit 64 shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment 64A of the present invention. The client adjustment unit 64A of FIG. 5 includes a client topic-checking portion 100, a client comparison portion 102, and a client output-controlling portion 104.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operation 84 shown in FIG. 4 according to an embodiment 84A of the present invention. Operation 84A includes calculating a score of a topic, which is most similar to an extracted characteristic of speech (operation 120), and comparing the calculated score with a client threshold value (operation 122).

After operation 82, in operation 120, the client topic-checking portion 100 detects a topic, which is most similar to the characteristic of the speech extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 and input through an input terminal IN3, calculates a score of the detected most similar topic, outputs a calculated score to the client comparison portion 102, and outputs the most similar topic to the client speech recognition unit 66 through an output terminal OUT_(N+5).

After operation 120, in operation 122, the client comparison portion 102 compares the detected score with the client threshold value and outputs a compared result to the client output-controlling portion 104 and to the client speech recognition unit 66 through an output terminal OUT_(N+6) (operation 122). Here, the client threshold value is a predetermined value and may be determined experimentally.

For a better understanding of the present invention, assuming that the score is larger than the client threshold value when the speech can be recognized by the client itself, if the score is larger than the client threshold value, the method proceeds to operation 86 and the client speech recognition unit 66 recognizes the speech. However, if the score is not larger than the client threshold value, the method proceeds to operation 88 and transmits the extracted characteristic of the speech to the first server.

To this end, the client output-controlling portion 104 outputs the extracted characteristic of the speech input from the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 through an input terminal IN3, to the client speech recognition unit 66 through an output terminal OUT_(N+4) according to a result compared by the client comparison portion 102 or transmits the characteristic of the speech to the first server through the output terminal OUT_(N+4) (where OUT_(N+4) corresponds to an output terminal OUT_(N+3) shown in FIG. 3). More specifically, if it is recognized by the result compared by the client comparison portion 102 that the score is larger than the client threshold value, the client output-controlling portion 104 outputs the extracted characteristic of the speech input from the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 through the input terminal IN3, to the client speech recognition unit 66 through the output terminal OUT_(N+4). However, if it is recognized by the result compared by the client comparison portion 102 that the score is not larger than the client threshold value, in operation 88, the client output-controlling portion 104 transmits the extracted characteristic of the speech input from the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 through the input terminal IN3 to the first server through the output terminal OUT_(N+4).

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the client speech recognition unit 66 shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment 66A of the present invention. The client speech recognition unit 66A of FIG. 7 includes a client decoder selection portion 160 and first through P-th speech recognition decoders 162, 164, . . . , and 166. Here, P is the number of topics checked by the client topic-checking portion 100 shown in FIG. 5. That is, the client speech recognition unit 66 shown in FIG. 3 may include a speech recognition decoder according to each topic, as shown in FIG. 7.

The client decoder selection portion 160 selects a speech recognition decoder corresponding to a detected most similar topic input from the client topic-checking portion 100 through an input terminal IN4, from the first through P-th speech recognition decoders 162, 164, . . . , and 166. In this case, the client decoder selection portion 160 outputs the characteristic of the speech input from the client output-controlling portion 104 through the input terminal IN4 to the selected speech recognition decoder. To perform this operation, the client decoder selection portion 160 should be activated in response to a compared result input from the client comparison portion 102. More specifically, if it is recognized by the compared result input from the client comparison portion 102 that the score is larger than the client threshold value, the client decoder selection portion 160 selects a speech recognition decoder and outputs the characteristic of the speech to the selected speech recognition decoder, as previously described.

The p-th (1≦p≦P) speech recognition decoder shown in FIG. 7 recognizes speech from the characteristic output from the client decoder selection portion 160 and outputs a recognized result through an output terminal OUT_(N+6+p.)

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a q-th server according to an embodiment of the present invention. The first server of FIG. 8 includes a client restoration receiving unit 180, a server adjustment unit 182, a server speech recognition unit 184, a server application unit 186, and a server compression transmission unit 188. Here, 1≦q≦N. For an explanatory convenience, the q-th server is assumed to be the first server. However, the present invention is not limited to this assumption.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating operation 42 shown in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Operation 42 of FIG. 9 includes recognizing speech or transmitting a received characteristic of the speech depending on whether a first server itself can recognize the speech (operations 200 through 204).

Before describing the apparatus shown in FIG. 8 and the method shown in FIG. 9, an environment of a network via which the characteristic of the speech is transmitted from the client 10 to the first server will now be described.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the network via which the characteristic of the speech is transmitted from the client 10 to the first server may be a loss channel or a lossless channel. Here, the loss channel is a channel via which a loss occurs when data or a signal is transmitted and may be a wire/wireless speech channel, for example. In addition, a lossless channel is a channel via which a loss does not occur when data or a signal is transmitted and may be a wireless LAN data channel such as a transmission control protocol (TCP). In this case, since a loss occurs when the characteristic of the speech is transmitted to the loss channel, in order to transmit the characteristic of the speech to the loss channel, a characteristic to be transmitted from the client 10 is compressed, and the first server should restore the compressed characteristic of the speech.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the client 10A may further include the client compression transmission unit 70. Here, the client compression transmission unit 70 compresses the characteristic of the speech according to a result obtained by the client comparison portion 102 of the client adjustment unit 64A and in response to a transmission format signal and transmits the compressed characteristic of the speech to the first server through an output terminal OUT_(N+4) via the loss channel. Here, the transmission format signal is a signal generated by the client adjustment unit 64 when a network via which the characteristic of the speech is transmitted is a loss channel. More specifically, if it is recognized by the result compared by the client comparison portion 102 that the score is not larger than the client threshold value, the client compression transmission unit 70 compresses the characteristic of the speech and transmits the compressed characteristic of the speech in response to the transmission format signal input from the client adjustment unit 64.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating operation 88 shown in FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Operation 88 of FIG. 10 includes compressing and transmitting a characteristic of speech depending on whether the characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via a loss channel or a lossless channel (operations 210 through 214).

In operation 210, the client adjustment unit 64 determines whether the characteristic extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 is to be transmitted via the loss channel or the lossless channel. That is, the client adjustment unit 64 determines whether the network via which the characteristic of the speech is transmitted is a loss channel or a lossless channel.

If it is determined that the extracted characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the lossless channel, in operation 212, the client adjustment unit 64 transmits the characteristic of the speech extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 to the first server through an output terminal OUT_(N+3) via the lossless channel.

However, if it is determined that the extracted characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the loss channel, the client adjustment unit 64 generates a transmission format signal and outputs the transmission format signal to the client compression transmission unit 70. In this case, in operation 214, the client compression transmission unit 70 compresses the characteristic of the speech extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit 62 and input from the client adjustment unit 64 and transmits the compressed characteristic of the speech to the first server through an output terminal OUT_(N+4) via the loss channel.

The client restoration receiving portion 180 shown in FIG. 8 receives the compressed characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client compression transmission unit 70 shown in FIG. 3 through an input terminal IN5, restores the received compressed characteristic of the speech, and outputs the restored characteristic of the speech to the server adjustment portion 182. In this case, the first server shown in FIG. 8 performs operation 42 shown in FIG. 2 using the restored characteristic of the speech.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the client 10A shown in FIG. 3 may not include the client compression transmission unit 70. In this case, the first server shown in FIG. 8 may not include the client restoration receiving portion 180, the server adjustment portion 182 directly receives the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client 10 through an input terminal IN6, and the first server shown in FIG. 8 performs operation 42 shown in FIG. 2 using the received characteristic of the speech.

Hereinafter, for a better understanding of the present invention, assuming that the first server shown in FIG. 8 does not include the client restoration receiving portion 180, the operation of the first server shown in FIG. 8 will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to this.

The server adjustment portion 182 receives the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client 10 through the input terminal IN6, checks whether the first server itself can recognize the speech, using the received characteristic of the speech, and transmits the received characteristic of the speech to a different server or outputs the received characteristic of the speech to the server speech recognition unit 184, according to a checked result (operations 200 through 204).

In operation 200, the server adjustment unit 182 determines whether the first server itself can recognize the speech, using the received characteristic of the speech. If it is determined by the server adjustment unit 182 that the first server itself can recognize the speech, in operation 202, the server speech recognition unit 184 recognizes the speech using the received characteristic of the speech input from the server adjustment unit 182 and outputs a recognized result. In this case, the server speech recognition unit 184 can output the recognized result in a textual format.

The server application unit 186 performs as the first server using the recognized result and outputs a performed result through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+7). For example, when the first server is a home server, a function performed by the server application unit 186 may be a function of controlling household appliances or searching information.

However, if it is determined by the server adjustment unit 182 that the first server itself cannot recognize the speech, in operation 204, the server adjustment unit 182 transmits the received characteristic of the speech to a different server through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+8.)

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the server adjustment unit 182 shown in FIG. 8 according to an embodiment 182A of the present invention. The server adjustment unit 182A includes a server topic-checking portion 220, a server comparison portion 222, and a server output-controlling portion 224.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating operation 200 shown in FIG. 9 according to an embodiment 200A of the present invention. Operation 200A of FIG. 9 includes calculating a score of a topic that is most similar to a received characteristic of speech (operation 240) and comparing the score with a server threshold value (operation 242).

In operation 240, the server topic-checking portion 220 detects the topic that is most similar to the characteristic of the speech, which is transmitted from the client 10 and received through an input terminal IN7, calculates a score of the detected most similar topic, outputs the calculated score to the server comparison portion 222, and outputs the most similar topic to the server speech recognition unit 184 through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+11.)

After operation 240, in operation 242, the server comparison portion 222 compares the score detected by the server topic-checking portion 220 with the server threshold value and outputs a compared result to the server output-controlling portion 224 and to the server speech recognition unit 184 through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+12). Here, the server threshold value is a predetermined value and may be determined experimentally.

For a better understanding of the present invention, if the score is larger than the server threshold value, in operation 202, the server speech recognition unit 184 recognizes the speech. However, if the score is not larger than the server threshold value, in operation 204, the server adjustment unit 182 transmits the received characteristic of the speech to a different server.

To this end, the server output-controlling portion 224 outputs the characteristic of the speech received through an input terminal IN7 to the server speech recognition unit 184 through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+10) or transmits the received characteristic of the speech to a different server through the output terminal OUT_(N+P+10) (where OUT_(N+P+10) corresponds to an output terminal OUT_(N+O+8) shown in FIG. 8) in response to a result compared by the server comparison portion 222. More specifically, if it is recognized by the result compared by the server comparison portion 222 that the score is larger than the server threshold value, the server output-controlling portion 224 outputs the characteristic of the speech received through the input terminal IN7 to the server speech recognition unit 184 through the output terminal OUT_(N+P+10). However, if it is recognized by the result compared by the server comparison portion 222 that the score is not larger than the server threshold value, in operation 204, the server output-controlling portion 224 transmits the characteristic of the speech received through the input terminal IN7 to a different server through the output terminal OUT_(N+P+10.)

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the server speech recognition unit 184 shown in FIG. 8 according to an embodiment 184A of the present invention. The server speech recognition unit 184A of FIG. 13 includes a server decoder selection portion 260 and first through R-th speech recognition decoders 262, 264, . . . , and 266. Here, R is the number of topics checked by the server topic-checking portion 220 shown in FIG. 11. That is, the server speech recognition unit 184 shown in FIG. 8 may include a speech recognition decoder according to each topic, as shown in FIG. 13.

The server decoder selection portion 260 selects a speech recognition decoder corresponding to a detected most similar topic input from the server topic-checking portion 220 through an input terminal IN8, from the first through R-th speech recognition decoders 262, 264, . . . , and 266. In this case, the server decoder selection portion 260 outputs the characteristic of the speech input from the server output-controlling portion 224 through the input terminal IN8 to the selected speech recognition decoder. To perform this operation, the client decoder selection portion 260 should be activated in response to a compared result input from the server comparison portion 222. More specifically, if it is recognized by the compared result input from the server comparison portion 222 that the score is larger than the server threshold value, the server decoder selection portion 260 selects a speech recognition decoder and outputs the characteristic of the speech to the selected speech recognition decoder, as previously described.

The r-th (1≦r≦R) speech recognition decoder shown in FIG. 13 recognizes speech from the received characteristic input from the server decoder selection portion 260 and outputs a recognized result through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+r+12).

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the client topic-checking portion 100 shown in FIG. 5 or the server topic-checking portion 220 shown in FIG. 11 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The client topic-checking portion 100 or the server topic-checking portion 220 of FIG. 14 includes a keyword storage portion 280, a keyword search portion 282, and a score calculation portion 284.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating operation 120 shown in FIG. 6 or operation 240 shown in FIG. 12 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Operation 120 or 240 includes searching keywords (operation 300) and determining a score of a most similar topic (operation 302).

In operation 300, the keyword search portion 282 searches keywords having a characteristic of speech similar to a characteristic of speech input through an input terminal IN9, from a plurality of keywords that have been previously stored in the keyword storage portion 280, and outputs the searched keywords in a list format to the score calculation portion 284. To this end, the keyword storage portion 280 stores a plurality of keywords. Each of the keywords stored in the keyword storage portion 280 has its own speech characteristic and scores according to each topic. That is, an i-th keyword Keyword_(i) stored in the keyword storage portion 280 has a format such as [a speech characteristic of Keyword_(i), Topic_(1i), Score_(1i), Topic_(2i), Score_(2i), . . . ]. Here, Topic_(ki) is a k-th topic for Keyword_(i) and Score_(ki) is a score of Topic_(ki).

After operation 300, in operation 302, the score calculation portion 284 calculates scores according to each topic from the searched keywords having the list format input from the keyword search portion 282, selects a largest score from the calculated scores according to each topic, outputs the selected largest score as a score of a most similar topic through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+R+13), and outputs a topic having the selected largest score as a most similar topic through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+R+14). For example, the score calculation portion 284 can calculate scores according to each topic using Equation 1:

$\begin{matrix} {{{{Score}\left( {Topic}_{k} \right)} = {\prod\limits_{j = 1}^{\#}\left( {Keyword}_{j} \middle| {Topic}_{k} \right)}},} & (1) \end{matrix}$

where Score(Topic_(k)) is a score for a k-th topic Topic_(k) and # is a total number of searched keywords having the list format input from the keyword search portion 282. Consequently, as shown in Equation 1, Score(Topic_(k)) means a result of multiplication of scores, that is, Scorek1 to Scorek# for Topic_(k) among keywords from Keyword1 to Keyword#.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an n-th server according to an embodiment of the present invention. The n-th server includes a server restoration receiving unit 320, a server adjustment unit 322, a server speech recognition unit 324, a server application unit 326, and a server compression transmission unit 328. As described above, the n-th server may be a server that receives a characteristic of speech transmitted from a first server or a server that receives a characteristic of speech transmitted from a certain server excluding the first server and recognizes the speech.

Before describing the apparatus shown in FIG. 16, an environment of a network via which a characteristic of speech is transmitted will now be described.

The flowchart shown in FIG. 9 may also be a flowchart illustrating operation 44 shown in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this case, in operation 200 shown in FIG. 9, it is determined whether the n-th server itself instead of the first server itself can recognize the speech.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the network via which the characteristic of the speech is transmitted from one server to a different server, for example, from the first server to the n-th server or from the n-th server to a (n+1)-th server may be a loss channel or a lossless channel. In this case, since a loss occurs when the characteristic of the speech is transmitted to the loss channel, in order to transmit the characteristic of the speech to the loss channel, a characteristic to be transmitted from the first server (or the n-th server) is compressed, and the n-th server (or the (n+1)-th server) should restore the compressed characteristic of the speech.

Hereinafter, for a better understanding of the present invention, assuming that the characteristic of the speech is transmitted from the first server to the n-th server, FIG. 16 will be described. However, the following description may be applied to a case where the characteristic of the speech is transmitted from the n-th server to the (n+1)-th server.

As shown in FIG. 8, the first server may further include the server compression transmission unit 188. Here, the server compression transmission unit 188 compresses the characteristic of the speech according to a result compared by the server comparison portion 222 of the server adjustment unit 182A and in response to a transmission format signal and transmits the compressed characteristic of the speech to the n-th server through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+9) via the loss channel. Here, the transmission format signal is a signal generated by the server adjustment unit 182 when a network via which the characteristic of the speech is transmitted is a loss channel. More specifically, if it is recognized by the result compared by the server comparison portion 222 that the score is not larger than the server threshold value, the server compression transmission unit 188 compresses the characteristic of the speech and transmits the compressed characteristic of the speech in response to the transmission format signal input from the server adjustment unit 182.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating operation 204 according to an embodiment of the present invention when the flowchart shown in FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of operation 44 shown in FIG. 2. Operation 204 of FIG. 17 includes compressing and transmitting a characteristic of speech depending on whether the characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via a loss channel or a lossless channel (operations 340 through 344).

In operation 340, the server adjustment unit 182 determines whether a characteristic of speech is transmitted via the loss channel or the lossless channel. If it is determined that the received characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the lossless channel, in operation 342, the server adjustment unit 182 transmits the received characteristic of the speech to the n-th server through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+8) via the lossless channel.

However, if it is determined that the received characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the loss channel, the server adjustment unit 182 generates a transmission format signal and outputs the transmission format signal to the server compression transmission unit 188. In this case, in operation 344, the server compression transmission unit 188 compresses the characteristic of the speech input from the server adjustment unit 182 when the transmission format signal is input from the server adjustment unit 182 and transmits the compressed characteristic of the speech to the n-th server through an output terminal OUT_(N+P+9) via the loss channel.

Thus, the server restoration receiving unit 320 shown in FIG. 16 receives the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the compression transmission unit 188 shown in FIG. 8 through an input terminal IN10, restores the received compressed characteristic of the speech, and outputs the restored characteristic of the speech to the server adjustment unit 322. In this case, the n-th server performs operation 44 shown in FIG. 2 using the restored characteristic of the speech.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the first server shown in FIG. 8 may not include the server compression transmission unit 188. In this case, the n-th server shown in FIG. 16 may not include the server restoration receiving unit 320. The server adjustment unit 322 directly receives the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the first server through an input terminal IN11, and the n-th server performs operation 44 shown in FIG. 2 using the received characteristic of the speech.

The server adjustment unit 322, the server speech recognition unit 324, the server application unit 326, and the server compression transmission unit 328 of FIG. 16 perform the same functions as those of the server adjustment unit 182, the server speech recognition unit 184, the server application unit 186, and the server compression transmission unit 188 of FIG. 8, and thus, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. Thus, the output terminals OUT_(N+P+R+15), OUT_(N+P+R+16), and OUT_(N+P+R+17) shown in FIG. 16 correspond to the output terminals OUT_(N+P+R+7), OUT_(N+P+R+8), and OUT_(N+P+R+9), respectively, shown in FIG. 8.

As described above, in the multi-layered speech recognition apparatus and method according to the present invention, since speech recognition is to be performed in a multi-layered manner using a client and at least one server, which are connected to each other in a multi-layered manner via a network, a user of a client can recognize speech with high quality. For example, the client can recognize speech continuously, and the load on speech recognition between a client and at least one server is optimally dispersed such that the speed of speech recognition can be improved.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents. 

1. A multi-layered speech recognition apparatus comprising: a client checking whether the client recognizes speech and recognizing the speech when the client itself can recognize the speech and transmitting the speech when the client itself cannot recognize the speech, according to a first checked result; and first through N-th (where N is a positive integer equal to or greater than 1) servers, wherein the first server receives the speech transmitted from the client, checks whether the first server recognizes the speech, and recognizes the speech when the first server itself can recognize the speech or transmits the speech when the first server itself cannot recognize the speech according to a second checked result, wherein an n-th (2≦n≦N) server receives the speech transmitted from an (n−1)-th server, checks whether the n-th server recognizes the speech, and recognizes the speech when the n-th server itself can recognize the speech or transmits the speech when the n-th server itself cannot recognize the speech according to a third checked result, and wherein the first server has a larger capacity of resource than the client and the n-th server has a larger capacity of resource than the (n−1)-th server.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the client comprises: a speech characteristic extraction unit extracting a characteristic of the speech to be recognized; recognized; a client speech recognition unit recognizing the speech from the extracted characteristic of the speech; and a client adjustment unit checking whether the client recognizes the speech using the extracted characteristic of the speech, and transmitting the characteristic of the speech to the first server or outputting the characteristic of the speech to the client speech recognition unit according to the first checked result.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the client adjustment unit comprises: a client topic-checking portion detecting a topic that is most similar to the extracted characteristic of the speech and calculating a score of the detected most similar topic; a client comparison portion comparing the detected score with a client threshold value; and a client output-controlling portion outputting the extracted characteristic of the speech to the client speech recognition unit or transmitting the extracted characteristic of the speech to the first server according to the compared result.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the client further comprises: a client compression transmission unit compressing the extracted characteristic of the speech according to the compared result and according to a transmission format signal, and transmitting the compressed characteristic of the speech to the first server via a loss channel, and the first server comprises a client restoration receiving unit receiving the compressed characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client compression transmission unit and restoring the received compressed characteristic of the speech, and the first server checks whether the speech is recognized using the restored characteristic of the speech, and recognizes the speech or transmits the restored characteristic of the speech according to the second checked result.
 5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the client speech recognition unit comprises: first through P-th (where P is the number of topics checked by the client topic-checking portion) speech recognition decoders; and a client decoder selection portion being activated according to the compared result and selectively outputting the extracted characteristic of the speech to a speech recognition decoder corresponding to the detected most similar topic input from the client topic-checking portion from the first through P-th speech recognition decoders, and a p-th (1≦p≦P) speech recognition decoder recognizes the speech from the extracted characteristic of the speech.
 6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the client further comprises: a speech input unit inputting the speech from an outside and detecting a valid speech section from the input speech, and the client extracts the characteristic of the speech from the valid speech section.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a q-th (1≦q≦N) server comprises: a server speech recognition unit recognizing the speech from the received speech; and a server adjustment unit checking whether the q-th server recognizes the speech using the received speech and transmitting the received speech to a different server or outputting the received speech to the server speech recognition unit according to a fourth checked result.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the server adjustment unit comprises: a server topic-checking portion detecting a topic that is most similar to the received speech and calculating a score of the detected most similar topic; a server comparison portion comparing the score detected by the server topic-checking portion with a server threshold value; and a server output-controlling portion outputting the received speech to the server speech recognition unit or transmitting the received speech to the different server in response to a result compared by the server comparison portion.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the server speech recognition unit comprises: first through R-th (where R is the number of topics checked by the server topic-checking portion) speech recognition decoders; and a server decoder selection portion being activated in response to the result compared by the server comparison portion and selectively outputting the received speech to a speech recognition decoder corresponding to the detected most similar topic input from the server topic-checking portion from the first through R-th speech recognition decoders, and an r-th (1≦r≦R) speech recognition decoder recognizes the speech from the received speech.
 10. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the client topic-checking portion comprises: a keyword storage portion storing a plurality of keywords; a keyword search portion searching words having a characteristic similar to the characteristic of the speech from the plurality of keywords and outputting the searched words in a list format; and a score calculation portion calculating scores according to each topic from the list, outputting a largest score as a score of the most similar topic and outputting a topic having the largest score as the most similar topic, and each of the keywords has unique speech characteristics and scores according to each topic.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the server topic-checking portion comprises: a keyword storage portion storing a plurality of keywords; a keyword search portion searching keywords having a characteristic similar to the speech from the plurality of keywords and outputting the searched words in a list format; and a score calculation portion calculating scores according to each topic from the list, outputting a largest score as a score of the most similar topic and outputting a topic having the largest score as the most similar topic, and each of the keywords has unique speech characteristics and scores according to each topic.
 12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the q-th server comprises: a server compression transmission unit compressing the received speech in response to the result compared by the server comparison portion and in response to a transmission format signal and transmitting the compressed characteristic of the speech to the different server via a loss channel, and the different server comprises a server restoration receiving unit receiving the compressed characteristic of the speech transmitted from the server compression transmission unit and restoring the received compressed characteristic of the speech, and the different server checks whether the different server recognizes the speech using the restored characteristic of the speech and recognizes the speech or transmitting the restored characteristic of the speech according to the fourth checked result.
 13. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the client further comprises a speech input unit through which speech is input from an outside, detects a valid speech section from the input speech, and outputs the detected valid speech section to the speech characteristic extraction unit.
 14. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the speech characteristic extraction unit extracts the characteristic of the speech in a vector format from the valid speech section from the input speech.
 15. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the client adjustment unit determines whether the characteristic extracted by the speech characteristic extraction unit is to be transmitted via a loss channel or a lossless channel.
 16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the different server further comprises a server adjustment unit, a server speech recognition unit, a server application unit and a server compression transmission unit.
 17. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first server comprises a server adjustment unit directly receiving the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client and the first server checks whether the speech is recognized using restored characteristics of the speech according to the first checked result.
 18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the n-th server comprises a server adjustment unit directly receiving the speech transmitted from the first server and the n-th server checks whether the speech is recognized according to the third checked result.
 19. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first through N-th (where N is a positive integer equal to or greater than 1) servers comprise ubiquitous robot companions.
 20. A multi-layered speech recognition method performed in a multi-layered speech recognition apparatus having a client and first through N-th (where N is a positive integer equal to or greater than 1) servers, the method comprising: checking whether the client recognizes speech and recognizing the speech when the client itself can recognize the speech and transmitting the speech when the client itself cannot recognize the speech according to a first checked result; and receiving the speech transmitted from the client, checking whether the first server recognizes the speech and recognizing the speech when the first server itself can recognize the speech or transmitting the speech when the first server itself cannot recognize the speech according to the first checked result, and receiving the speech transmitted from an (n−1)-th (2≦n≦N) server, checking whether an n-th server recognizes the speech and recognizing the speech when the n-th server itself can recognize the speech or transmitting the speech when the n-th server itself cannot recognize the speech according to a second checked result, wherein the receiving of the speech transmitted from the client is performed by the first server, the receiving of the speech transmitted from the (n−1)-th server is performed by the n-th server, and wherein the first server has a larger capacity of resource than the client and the n-th server has a larger capacity of resource than the (n−1)-th server.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the receiving of the speech transmitted from the (n−1)-th server includes receiving one characteristic of the speech after another by several servers until the speech is recognized.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein the extracting of the characteristic of the speech to be recognized comprises: extracting the characteristic of the speech to be recognized; determining whether the client recognizes the speech using the extracted characteristic of the speech; if determined that the client recognizes the speech, recognizing the speech using the extracted characteristic of the speech; and if determined that the client cannot recognize the speech, transmitting the extracted characteristic of the speech to the first server.
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the determining whether the client recognizes the speech comprises: detecting a topic that is most similar to the extracted characteristic of the speech and calculating scores of the detected most similar topic; and determining whether the calculated scores are larger than a client threshold value, and when the client recognizes the speech, the calculated scores are larger than the client threshold value.
 24. The method of claim 22, wherein the transmitting of the extracted characteristic of the speech to the first server comprises: determining whether the extracted characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via a loss channel or a lossless channel; if determined that the extracted characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the lossless channel, transmitting the extracted characteristic of the speech to the first server via the lossless channel; and if determined that the extracted characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the loss channel, compressing the extracted characteristic of the speech and transmitting the compressed characteristic of the speech to the first server via the loss channel, the first server includes receiving the compressed characteristic of the speech transmitted via the loss channel and restoring the received compressed characteristic of the speech, and the first server performs the receiving of the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client using the restored characteristic of the speech.
 25. The method of claim 22, wherein the extracting of the characteristic of the speech to be recognized further comprises inputting the speech from an outside and detecting a valid speech section from the input speech, and the client extracts the characteristic of the speech from the valid speech section.
 26. The method of claim 20, wherein the receiving of the speech transmitted from the client or the receiving of the speech transmitted from a (n−1)-th server comprises: determining whether a q-th (1≦q≦N) server recognizes the speech; if determined that the q-th server recognizes the speech, recognizing the speech; and if determined that the q-th server cannot recognize the speech, transmitting the speech to a different server.
 27. The method of claim 26, wherein the determining whether the q-th server recognizes the speech comprises: detecting a topic that is most similar to a received characteristic of the speech and calculating scores of the detected most similar topic; and determining whether the calculated scores are larger than a server threshold value, and when the q-th server recognizes the speech, the calculated scores are larger than the server threshold value.
 28. The method of claim 23, wherein the calculating of the scores of the detected most similar topic comprises: searching words having a characteristic similar to the characteristic of the speech from a plurality of keywords that have been previously stored; and calculating the scores of the detected most similar topic according to each topic from the searched keywords and determining a largest score as the score of the most similar topic, each of the words has unique speech characteristics and scores according to each topic.
 29. The method of claim 27, wherein the calculating of the scores of the detected most similar topic comprises: searching words having a characteristic similar to the characteristic of the speech from a plurality of keywords that have been previously stored; and calculating the scores according to each topic from the searched words and determining a largest score as the score of the most similar topic, each of the words has unique speech characteristics and scores according to each topic.
 30. The method of claim 27, wherein the transmitting of the received characteristic of the speech to the different server comprises: determining whether the received characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via a loss channel or a lossless channel; if determined that the received characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the lossless channel, transmitting the extracted characteristic of the speech to the different server via the lossless channel; and if determined that the received characteristic of the speech is to be transmitted via the loss channel, compressing the received characteristic of the speech and transmitting the compressed characteristic of the speech to the different server via the loss channel, wherein the different server includes receiving the compressed characteristic of the speech transmitted via the loss channel and restoring the received compressed characteristic of the speech, and wherein the different server checks whether the different server recognizes the speech using the restored characteristic of the speech and recognizes the speech or transmits the restored characteristic of the speech according to the checked result. 